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Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

Haines City, Florida: a police officer is charged after his arrest affidavit says he searched his estranged wife's vehicle 717 times on the Flock license-plate-reader platform between September 2024 and June 2026

According to an arrest affidavit and a Haines City Police Department news release reported by The Ledger and FOX 13 Tampa Bay, a Haines City police officer made 717 inquiries on the Flock camera platform into his estranged wife's vehicle between 1 September 2024 and 30 June 2026, on and off duty. He told a lieutenant that he had searched the vehicle to keep track of his children's location when they were with her. Command staff were notified of possible misuse on 10 August 2026; the affidavit says the woman had texted him that day that the Washington Post had contacted her about an article on his use of the Flock database. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave, charged with one count of offenses against users of computers and one count of official misconduct, and said he intended to resign. The police chief said he had ordered additional quarterly checks on database access.

AI system
Flock Safety license plate readers
Flock Safety
Occurred
Sept 2024 to Jun 2026
Reported
11 August 2026
Event location
United States
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or Abuse
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice · Relationships
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Flock Safety automated license-plate-reader camera platform used by the Haines City Police Department, which the officer searched through his police access (arrest affidavit and police news release, as reported by The Ledger and FOX 13)

What Happened

The Ledger and FOX 13 Tampa Bay, reporting on 11 August 2026 from the officer's arrest affidavit and a Haines City Police Department news release, state that an investigation found the officer had used the Flock camera database 717 times between 1 September 2024 and 30 June 2026 to check the locations of a vehicle belonging to his estranged wife, both on and off duty. According to the affidavit, he told a lieutenant that he had searched the vehicle several times to keep track of his children's location when they were with his wife. The affidavit also says that on 10 August 2026 the woman sent the officer a text message saying that the Washington Post had contacted her and planned to write an article on his misuse of the Flock database to follow her location; the affidavit does not say how the newspaper learned of it. Command staff were notified of possible misuse at about 6:30 p.m. that day, opened a criminal investigation and placed the officer, who had served with the department since March 2022, on paid administrative leave. He was charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices and one count of official misconduct, and indicated that he intended to resign. Police Chief Isaac Jackson said the department does not tolerate the misuse or personal use of investigative databases and that he had mandated additional quarterly steps; the department said it would keep using Flock cameras. The Ledger describes Flock cameras as automated license plate readers that capture plates, vehicle type, color and other identifying features and organize the information into a searchable system. A Gray News relay (Live 5 News, 18 August 2026) repeats the affidavit figures.

Reported harm

According to the arrest affidavit, the woman's vehicle was searched 717 times on the Flock license-plate-reader platform by her estranged husband, a police officer, over nearly two years, on and off duty; he is charged with a computer offence and official misconduct.

Outcome

Pending

After command staff were notified of possible misuse at about 6:30 p.m. on 10 August 2026, the Haines City Police Department opened a criminal investigation and placed the officer on paid administrative leave. He was charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices and one count of official misconduct, and indicated his intent to resign (The Ledger; FOX 13). Police Chief Isaac Jackson said he had mandated additional quarterly steps to make sure staff access the databases for legitimate purposes; the department said it did not plan to stop using Flock cameras (FOX 13). No court outcome is reported in the sources read.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the woman has described any effect of the searches on her.
  • The exact arrest date, the court handling the charges and any outcome.
  • Whether the resignation took effect.
  • How the Washington Post learned of the searches.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The arrest affidavit, as reported by The Ledger and FOX 13, says the officer made 717 inquiries on the Flock camera platform into his estranged wife's vehicle. The Ledger describes Flock cameras as automated license plate readers that capture plates, vehicle type, color and other identifying features and organize them into a searchable system. The plate-read records about the woman's vehicle were the system's output; the searches are recorded as the officer's own acts. The sources do not describe the readers as AI.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported According to the arrest affidavit, the officer made 717 inquiries on the Flock camera platform into his estranged wife's vehicle between 1 September 2024 and 30 June 2026, both on and off duty, to check its locations.

Causal attribution. The arrest affidavit and the department's release, relayed by three outlets; not independent support. The officer is charged, not convicted.

  • theledger.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'used the database 717 times between September 2024 and June 2026 to check the locations of a vehicle belonging to his estranged wife'; 'used a database of Flock camera recordings to follow his wife’s location'
  • fox13news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'made 717 inquiries on the Flock camera platform into his estranged wife'; 'misused the Flock camera databases both on and off duty'
  • live5news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'into the Flock database 717 times between Sept. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2026'
Reported According to the affidavit, the officer told a lieutenant that he had searched the vehicle several times on the database to keep track of his children's location when they were with his wife.

Causal attribution. The officer's own explanation as recorded in the affidavit.

Reported The affidavit says that on 10 August 2026 the woman sent the officer a text message saying that the Washington Post had contacted her and planned to write an article on his misuse of the Flock database to follow her location; command staff were notified of possible misuse at about 6:30 p.m. that day and opened a criminal investigation.

Causal attribution. The Ledger's account of the affidavit and release; the affidavit does not say how the newspaper learned of the searches.

  • theledger.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'a text message on Aug. 10 saying that the Washington Post had contacted her'; 'command staff were notified of possible misuse of the database'
Reported The officer, with the department since March 2022, was placed on paid administrative leave, charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices and one count of official misconduct, and indicated that he intended to resign.

Causal attribution. The department's news release; no court record was inspected.

  • theledger.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices and one count of official misconduct'; 'indicated his intent to resign as a result of the investigation'
  • fox13news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The officer was placed on paid administrative leave, arrested on two counts, and plans to resign from the department.'
Reported The police chief said he had mandated additional quarterly steps to make sure staff access investigative databases for legitimate purposes, and the department said it did not plan to stop using Flock cameras.

Causal attribution. The chief's statement and the department's position as reported by FOX 13.

  • fox13news.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I have mandated additional steps to be taken quarterly'; 'do not plan to discontinue their use of Flock cameras'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-04 from the eu.theledger.com edition of the same article (11 August 2026). Rests on the arrest affidavit and the department's news release. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; FOX 13 Tampa Bay, 11 August 2026). States that its information came from the department's press release, the arrest affidavit and the chief's statement. Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-04 (live; WWSB via Gray News, 18 August 2026). Relays the affidavit figures as reported by People and the department's release. Applies to s3.

Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.

The officer served with the Haines City Police Department in Polk County, Florida, which investigated and charged him (The Ledger; FOX 13). The woman's residence is not stated; affected_person_countries US rests on her vehicle being searched on the Haines City department's Flock platform. The charges were brought in Florida.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-04: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an institutional privacy and safety case, consistent with the held Flock officer-misuse rows: an arrest affidavit and police news release, reported by The Ledger and FOX 13, say a Haines City police officer searched his estranged wife's vehicle 717 times on the Flock license-plate-reader platform, and he has been charged. The automated readers generated the plate-read records; the misuse is recorded as a human act. Neither the officer nor the woman is named here.

People described

A woman, the officer's estranged wife (not named here)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the officer's estranged wife, whose vehicle was searched (arrest affidavit via The Ledger, FOX 13 and Live 5 News). The children the officer mentioned are not counted: no harm to them is reported. Exact 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#flock#alpr#license-plate-reader#police-misuse#estranged-spouse#florida#haines-city#polk-county

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Haines City, Florida: a police officer is charged after his arrest affidavit says he searched his estranged wife's vehicle 717 times on the Flock license-plate-reader platform between September 2024 and June 2026. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-haines-city-florida-police-officer-flock-alpr-717-searches-estranged-wife-vehicle-arrest

BibTeX

@misc{2024_haines_city_florida_police_officer_flock_alpr_717_searches_estranged_wife_vehicle_arrest,
  title = {Haines City, Florida: a police officer is charged after his arrest affidavit says he searched his estranged wife's vehicle 717 times on the Flock license-plate-reader platform between September 2024 and June 2026},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-haines-city-florida-police-officer-flock-alpr-717-searches-estranged-wife-vehicle-arrest}
}

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